The words "khagan" and "khan" are distinct today, though historically they were the same.[contradiction]

It may also be translated as Khan of Khans, equivalent to King of Kings. In modern Mongolian, the title became Khaan with the 'g' sound becoming almost silent or non-existent (i.e. a very light voiceless velar fricative); the ğ in modern Turkish Kağan is also silent. Since the civil war of the Mongol Empire, Emperors of the Yuan dynasty held the title of Khagan and their successors in Mongolia continued to have the title. Kağan is a common Turkish name in Turkey.

The common western rendering as Great Khan (or Grand Khan), notably in the case of the Mongol Empire, is translation of Yekhe Khagan (Great Emperor or Их Хаан).

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The title was first seen in a speech between 283 and 289, when the MongolicXianbei chief Tuyuhun tried to escape from his younger stepbrother Murong Hui, and began his route from the Liaodong Peninsula to the areas of Ordos Desert. In the speech one of the Murong's general named Yinalou addressed him as kehan (可寒, later as 可汗), some sources suggests that Tuyuhun might also have used the title after settling at Qinghai Lake in the 3rd century.[3]

The Avar Khaganate567–804, who may have included Rouran elements after the Göktürks crushed the Rouran ruling Mongolia, also used this title. The Avars invaded Europe, and for over a century ruled the Carpathian region. Westerners Latinized the title "Khagan" into "Gaganus" or Cagan et Iugurro principibus Hunorum.

The Secret History of the Mongols, written for that very dynasty, clearly distinguishes Khagan and Khan: only Genghis Khan and his ruling descendants are called Khagan, while other rulers are referred to as Khan. Khagan or Khaan refers to Emperor or King in the Mongolian language, however, Yekhe Khagan means Great Khagan or Grand Emperor.

The Mongol Empire began to politically split with the Toluid Civil War in 1260-1264 and the death of Kublai Khan in 1294, but the term Ikh Khagan (Great Khan, or Emperor) was still used by the emperors of the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), who assumed the role of emperor of China, and after the fall of the Yuan in China (1368) it continued to be used in Mongolia during the Northern Yuan dynasty.[8] Thus, the Yuan is sometimes referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan, coexisting with the independent Mongol khanates in the west, including the Chagatai Khanate and Golden Horde. Only the Ilkhanate truly recognized the Yuan's overlordship as allies (though it was effectively autonomous). Because Kublai founded the Yuan, the members of the other branches of the Borjigin could take part in the election of a new Khagan as the supporters of one or other of the contestants, but they could not enter the contest as candidates themselves.[9] Later Yuan emperors[10] made peace with the three western khanates of the Mongol Empire and were considered as their nominal suzerain.[11] The nominal supremacy, while based on nothing like the same foundations as that of the earlier Khagans (such as the continued border clashes among them), did last for a few decades, until the Yuan Dynasty fell in China (1368).[12]

After the breakdown of Mongol Empire and the fall of the Yuan Dynasty in the 14th century, the Mongols turned into a political turmoil. Dayan Khan (1464-1517/1543) once revived Emperor's authority and recovered its reputation in Mongolia, but with the distribution of his empire among his sons and relatives as fiefs it again caused decentralized rule. The last Khagan of the Chahars, Ligdan Khan, died in 1634 while fighting the Qing dynasty founded by the Manchu people. In contemporary Mongolian language the word "Khaan" and "Khan" have different meanings, while English language usually does not differentiate between them. The title is also used as a generic term for a king or emperor (as эзэн хаан, ezen khaan), as in "Испанийн хаан Хуан Карлос" (Ispaniin khaan Khuan Karlos, "king/khaan of Spain Juan Carlos").

The title became associated with the Ashina ruling clan of the Göktürks and their dynastic successors among such peoples as the Khazars (cf. the compound military title Khagan Bek). Minor rulers were rather relegated to the lower title of khan.

Both Khagan as such and the Turkish form Hakan, with the specification in Arabical-Barrayn wa al-Bahrayn (meaning literally "of both lands and both seas"), or rather fully in Ottoman TurkishHakan ül-Berreyn vel-Bahreyn, were among the titles in the official full style of the Great Sultan (and later Caliph) of the Ottoman Empire, reflecting the historical legitimation of the dynasty's rule as political successor to various conquered (often Islamised) states. (The title began: Sultan Hân N.N., Padishah, Hünkar, Sovereign of the House of Osman, Sultan of Sultans, Khan of Khans, Commander of the Faithful and Successor of the Prophet of the Lord of the Universe; next followed a series of specifical 'regional' titles, starting with Protector of the Holy Cities of Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.)

The Metropolitan of Kyiv, Hilarion, called the grand princes kagan in his sermons "Sermon on Law and Grace" and "Confessions of faith" (written in 1040s). He called Volodymyr the Grand Kagan of our land and Yaroslav as the Faithful Kagan. There is brief writing on a temple in Kyiv that reads: "Lord, save kagan of ours". Many believe that it is about the son of Yaroslav, grand prince Sviatoslav II (1073–1076).

^Beginning in the last years (1304) of Temür Khan, grandson of Kublai; most medieval historians such as Rashid al-Din and Alugh Beg Mirza described him as Grand khaan, see: Universal history and The Shajrat ul Atrak

^During this period the Mongol Emperors of the Yuan held the (nominal) title of Great Khan of all Mongol Khanates (of the Mongol Empire), of which the three western Mongol khanates still showed their respect in several cases. For example, the Ilkhans' coins carried the Khagan's name up until the early 14th century. It was also once said that Khagan is “the blessing of the creator” at the court of the Golden Horde during the reign of Ozbek Khan (1313-41).

^Kenneth Scott Latourette (1964). The Chinese, their history and culture1–2 (4, reprint ed.). Macmillan. p. 144. Retrieved 8 February 2012. territories within his empire. He took the title "Heavenly Khan," thus designating himself as their ruler. A little later the Western Turks, although then at the height of their power, were badly defeated, and the Uighurs, a Turkish tribe, were detached from them and became sturdy supporters of the T'ang in the Gobi. The Khitan, Mongols in Eastern Mongolia and Southern Manchuria, made their submission (630). In the Tarim basin

^Michael Robert Drompp (2005). Tang China and the collapse of the Uighur Empire: a documentary history. Brill's Inner Asian library13 (illustrated ed.) (BRILL). p. 126. ISBN90-04-14129-4. Retrieved 8 February 2012. the successes of Tang Taizong and to his taking the title of "Heavenly Qaghan" at the request of "the peoples of the northwest" in 630/631. The letter goes on to describe how Taizong's envoy was sent to pacify the Kirghiz in 632/633 and how in 647/648 a Kirghiz chieftain came to the Tang court where he was granted titles, including commander-in-chief of the Kirghiz (Jian-kun). All of this implied Kirghiz subordination to Tang authority, at least in Chinese eyes. According to the letter, Kirghiz tribute had come to the Tang court "uninterruptedly" until the end of the Tianbao reign period (742-756) when Kirghiz contact with the Tang state was cut off by the rise of Uighur power in Mongolia.